Thank you Robin!  So true.  A change in Attitude and Outlook on life.  A design for living.  No longer do I have to REACT to everything that isn't going the way I think it should.    I'm grateful for the changes that have occurred in me by the Grace of God as the result of The 12 Steps of AA. 

I think perspective can be a very tricky thing. I remember in early sobriety sitting around a camp fire in the desert eating rattle snake with my sponsor and a few other AA guys. My sponsor brought out that there was one camp fire but six of us sitting around it and it looked different to each one of us because of our individual perspectives. Alcoholism is a disease that can severely distort my perspective of reality. In the DRs Opinion, Silkworth  says that the alcoholic in a non drinking state is "restless, irritable, and discontent, unless they can again experience the sense of ease and comfort that comes form taking a few drinks". That state, restless, irritable, and discontent, can distort my perspective of reality so bad that i become willing to do almost anything for relief. There are two questions found in We Agnostics that are really the only two questions you need to diagnose ones self of alcoholism. they are: 

In the preceding chapters you have learned something of alcoholism. We hope we have made clear the distinction between the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic.  #1) If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or #2) if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic. pg 44

I am both of those. And as such, the following sentence tells me what is really wrong with me.

If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer. pg 44

If then, alcoholism is an illness which only a spiritual experience will conquer, then it stands to logic that it is a spiritual disease and not a learned or acquired behavior. I have seen in AA two kinds of alcoholics. Ones that became alcoholic because they drank too much, and those that drank too much because they were alcoholics. I am the latter. I have always, from day one, drink to fill a hole in my soul.  For me, the restless, irritable, discontent is the low level suffering of untreated alcoholism and will distort my perception of my reality. With out the spiritual awakening that comes with the steps, fellowship with other alcoholics, and service, no amount of therapy, thinking happy thoughts, or forcing my self to be good, will have much of an impact on my alcoholism. Those things can and do help once i had treated my alcoholism with AA.  Dr Bobs story shows this. He tried very hard to beat the game with the religious angle and it was to no avail untill he understood what it was that was wrong with him. I think knowing that alcoholism is a spiritual malady opens up a path for our perspective to start to change so we can see the truth and want to implement it. I personally have to use the kit of spiritual tools on a regular basis, or I revert back into untreated alcoholism and my perspective gets all askew and im on the road to hell once more and it will all be YOUR fault. A good buddy of mine once said to me, Bill if you go about your day and you run into two @$$holes, the third one is you. Time to look at your self again, tell someone about it, make amends if applicable, then get to a meeting and help someone. I know that I can see my spiritual fitness if everyone I come into contact with seems ok and we are all in this together and I'm interested in how your doing, im doing good spiritually. If on the other hand people iritate me, everyone is in my way, and no one knows what their doing, time for a change of perspective that can only come working on my spiritual condition. Sometimes im really good at it and sometimes i really suck at it and i always pay the price. I liked this topic a lot. I really like the place Chuck C comes from with old time AA. Chuck didn't actually write that book,. That book is a written transcript of talks he gave at a mens retreat back in the day. If you ever get a chance to listen to him, do it. He's a hoot.     maybe check out 

 http://www.aaspeakers.org/AA_Speaker_Tapes?sort=asc&order=Speaker